Carmaker’s email reprieve

VOLKSWAGEN has agreed to grant workers in Germany a rest from emails relentlessly filling the in-boxes of their Blackberry devices out of hours.

Europe’s biggest carmaker and the body that represents its workers have agreed to have the email function deactivated at night, a spokesman for the company said, confirming an earlier report in a German newspaper.

Workers will only receive emails from half an hour before the start of flexi-time working hours until half an hour after they end, but will still be able to receive and make phone calls. Daily newspaper Wolfsburger Allgemeine Zeitung this week cited council member Heinz-Joachim Thust as saying that 1,154 pay-scale employees at Volkswagen’s six plants in Germany have a smartphone device furnished by the company.